The Attenbury Emeralds: A Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery (Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mysteries Book 3)

Well, it's a well-told story leading to only a few dissatisfied thoughts, like, "Why didn't they have the jewels in a bank vault?" (that would be a spoiler if I said more) but mostly -- well, fun as it is, as good as the mystery part of it is, it just isn't Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. These characters have the names, but . . . Dorothy Sayers was an Oxford graduate: brilliant, erudite, fluent in Latin, Greek, French, given to quoting Great Minds . . And Peter and Harriet, as Oxford grads, were the same. That was part of the charm, part of the complexity of the characters. That's gone. Gone, too, are the deep philosophical contemplations and conversations that marked the later books, particularly Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon. Ms. Walsh is a good writer and storyteller, but she just doesn't have the chops to sustain these two characters' complexity. I blame modern education for letting us down.

I am a long time fan of Dorothy Sayers writing, Lord Peter and Harriet (and Bunter!) and I loved this. I enjoyed both some of the "back story" as well as the continuation of life and mystery. Unlike some commenters, I very much liked the pace of the story. Maybe it is my age (60) and also that I live very quietly and simply in a rural area and working from home and no tv by choice - but I find the contemporary writing with somewhat frenetic (to me) action to be just "noise". I like slower going, thoughtful stories and characters and that is no doubt part of my particular liking for this book. I also like how all are aging: Peter, Harriet, the Bunters, the Wimsey marriage and the children. I have liked all of Ms. Walsh's Wimsey books, but this is my current favorite and it feels like she has tuned in to Dorothy Sayers' voice.I've recently read several historical fictions books about WWII and post WWII in addition to watching the last 3 Foley's War series which are post WWII. I feel like an extremely "ugly American" for not knowing before that we (U.S.) were very late to support England and Europe and also am unclear if we were very supportive post war. This book is 6 years after the war ended and the British are still struggling to get back to "normal". Also, the fallout to those who fought...in every war before and since...

I find myself conflicted in my opinion of this book. First, as considered solely as a mystery story, it is good; not great -- but there are very few of those -- but certainly good. A reasonably plausible situation, a clear and plausible back story, no misleading clues, no significant errors -- but also no real spark.It is in dealing with the Wimsey family that I am both pleased and disappointed. The author does manage to continue the principle characters reasonably well; that is, their actions and reactions are not out of character with the persons created by Dorothy Sayres. And I will grant you, cheerfully, that doing even that well with Miss Sayres' characters is a remarkable achievement. I do have a reservation regarding the writing in that regard: Miss Sayres almost never found it necessary to add an adverb (e.g. "brightly", "sharply") to the he said/she said tags on dialogue; her dialogue spoke for itself. Miss Walsh does add adverbs, all too often -- and often unnecessarily, disturbing the flow. I am pleased by Miss Walsh's handling of the almost inevitable descent of the Dukedom on Lord Peter, she does, I think, rather well in outlining his reaction, and that of Harriet Vane, to that event.But notice that I used the word "outlining": it is only my opinion -- and not being an author, it is perhaps impertinent of me to even comment on this -- that a great deal more insight could have been added into the reactions of both of them to this event, particularly to the impact that had on the estate. Miss Walsh gives only a very superficial treatment to the impact of the death of the 16th Duke on the estate itself, and on the reactions of Peter and Harriet that. There is, indeed, really only one brief passage on this, regarding the fact that "the ancient tenantry will be turned out" and the comment that "yes, and there will not be the future income". This is, at best, at least in my opinion, a very superficial treatment of one of the most significant changes in English landholding and society in the last 300 years or so, a change which was not always, or perhaps even not often, for the better. Perhaps worse it treats the change (brought on by the exorbitant death duty set in place by the Labour government of the day) solely from the point of view of the aristocracy -- which narrow view His Grace Duke Peter would never, ever have countenanced, never mind Harriet. In at least two other books -- "Gaudy Night" and "Busman's Honeymoon" it is very clear Lord Peter, as he then was, was very concenred about the welfare of his tenants -- and indeed this was true of many (but certainly not all) of the real great landed aristocratic families. It seems to me that a real opportunity was missed here, and that is too bad.

As an avid fan of Dorothy Sayers’ Wimsey books I was tempted to read more stories about the characters I love so much. So perhaps I started with my expectations too high, as Sayers was a writer of exceptional skill. Jill Paton Walsh has a nice, light, readable style, but is simply not in the same class as Sayers.The author re-introduces a number of familiar characters, including Peter and Harriet, and also a new set relevant to this particular story. Her treatment of new characters, which were well drawn, seemed to me to be more successful than her use of Sayers’ characters. Particularly in the case of Peter, Harriet and Bunter I felt that, despite the passage of time, they had not developed in any way and they came over as pale shadows of the personalities I had encountered in previous books written by Sayers. I also felt that the historical context of the Sayers’ books added to their charm, whereas this had been largely lost in the update.The mystery element of the story took many twists and turns and there was a scattering of murders along the way for good measure. The motivation of the perpetrator was well made out, but at the first introduction of the character they were marked out as the one to watch, but then faded out of the story so that the plot wasn’t fully woven together.Having said all that, the story was pleasant reading and would probably be enjoyed most by a reader fresh to the Wimsey stories.

This book really disappointed me.I was looking forward to the prequel of how the Attenbury emerald mystery was solved, but the writing style of the first half with it's first person recollection of events in the past told by Wimsey and Bunter felt clumsy and not like a Sayers novel. When events moved to the present and later events befalling the emeralds, the style felt more familiar, though I did notice that the characters tended to quote from books that would probably still be familiar to modern readers (eg. Pooh bear and Alice in Wonderland) rather than Sayers wider range. (you may regard this as a good or bad thing depending on your preference)The solution to the plot relied on a horrendous number of coincidences, which I guess I can't really complain about given that Sayers was almost as guilty in Clouds of Witness....However, I'm not currently inspired to try any more of Paton Walsh's Wimsey novels.

A super read! BUT as I progressed through the story I could not escape a gradually overwhelming feeling of sadness that Peter & his Harriet and their Bunter are ageing! My reaction was / is “ No, no no!” Theirs is not the story of reduced circumstances following WW11, Theirs is the story of visits from characters such as the marvellous MrPuffit in his “ high degree of onionisation, ”the “infinitely resourceful” Miss Climpson, the wonderful Bill Rumm, the “very great” Miss Lydgate & the timeless Dowager Duchess ( Wimsey’s mama). The result of this sadness?I shall return, when just enough time has passed & begin again during the days of Strong Poison & behold, they are all young again!Sayers herself declared that she had not done with Wimsey. I’m sure she meant to avoid a too quick ageing process - at least, I hope that is what she meant.

If you enjoy detective stories you may like this. If you are reading it as a fan of D.L.Sayers and the Wimsey, Harriet, Bunter triangle then it may disapoint. I didn't find plot interesting enough, the characters seemed too similar to each other and there was very little about Harriet and Peter's (let alone Bunter and Mrs. Bunter's) inner lives. In the DLS books the characters had there own lives and as much in love as Harriet and Peter were ,there were always differences in the way they spoke, thought and acted. In comparison these characters seem like cardboard cut-outs. If you lifted some dialogue out of the page I suspect you'd find it difficult to work out who was talking. Lord Peter has gone very soft and pc in his old age, made me feel quite nauseated. Without spoiling anything there were a few obvious loose ends left hanging. I was disapointed. This is not even close to 'Thrones and Dominations' which was a good read. After this one I may stick to the original stories, there's no point hanging on for more news about H&P if you don't recognise them.However it's not a bad story and I was interested to find out what happened. But I do miss Harriet and Peter :-(

Jill Paton Walsh has done an excellent job in general with her continuation of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels, but the plot if this one was beyond tedious beyond belief. The endless time lines of who had the wretched emeralds when were quite stupefyingly boring. It was like the mechanistic plots of the early D.L. Sayers with the tide tables and so on. On the plus side, watching Peter and Harriet going through life together continues to be a treat, and his traumatic elevation to the dukedom was very well done.